In a painstaking process this alternate history storyline has been researched and is presented for your entertainment.
By using historical documents from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff we know exactly what the contingency plans were in the case of an expected Soviet attack in 1946.

Jesus, who would have thought that I would have to help
these guys fly as well as keep my bird in the air.

“Good call Tail...over.”

“How are the other squadrons doing Owens?..over”

“Remarkably well Skipper. It looks like number three has
worked it out and their last maneuver was a thing of beauty...over”

“Good to hear....over.”

Owens had a ringside seat for some pretty amazing flying.
We’ll let him tell the tale.

“When we first started it was awful. I mean bombers
aren’t built to dodge and weave and especially when surrounded by other
bombers. I mean everyone but LeMay knew it was possible, but no one was sure it
could be done on a squadron level without putting other squadrons in danger.

12 B-24s dropping out of formation and making a tight
turn in unison and then reforming with the rest of the bomber stream was quite
a sight to behold. Yet, they were pulling it off. You really had to think in
three dimensions to make it work and they had figured it out ...in theory. We
had yet to try it in combat. In fact, the whole 15th Air Force had yet to drop
a bomb or see a Soviet fighter much less those missiles they shot at you."

The whole concept boiled down to the fact that those
missiles were going so fast that a well-timed turn or change in altitude could
make them miss. Well timed is the key. Make the maneuver too soon and the damn
things adjusted. Make it too late, and well, it’s too late. The real challenge
was timing and spacing.

The really new concept was that the maneuver involved the
whole bomber stream. There was nothing new about turning in unison. Every time
a squadron turned for home, they banked and turned together. They had that move
down pat. It was everyone’s favorite part of every mission besides landing. The
bomber stream followed as they got to the point where they had dropped their
bombs.

They had all watched in envy as the fighters blithely
jinked this way or that, and faked out the missiles. Very few fighters were
shot down by either air to air or ground to air missiles anymore.

Even a single
bomber could just barely out maneuver one of Stalin’s Fire ground to air
missiles if they did not have to worry about colliding with their neighbors.
The air to air missiles were another matter and they would have to rely on the
fighters to keep the launching platforms at arm’s length.

This new emphasis on squadron maneuvers might not have
much effect on the actual hit rate of the missiles but it would have a huge
effect on moral. The missiles seemed to always lock in on the lead bombers.
Even if the whole squadron could not get out of the way of the missile, at
least now the flight leaders had a fighting chance. The predictions were that
the hit rate would go down only a small amount but that the damage would be
more evenly spread out and not just the flight and squadron leaders.

Spreading out the damage was not emphasized or even
spoken openly about. The goal was to lower the hit rate overall but everyone
knew that it would have the effect of spreading out the danger more evenly. The
missiles were focused so intently on their initial targets that it was easy to
tell which squadron and even which plane it was locked on to and they very
rarely deviated and chose another target. Knowing you’re the target of the
missile meant two things for the plane in the crosshairs. One was a distinct
advantage. The second was terrifying. Terrifying to know the missile was locked
on to your plane and attempting to blow you and your crew to pieces.

The rule was that whatever squad started a turn first was
given priority and until they had complete their evasive maneuver no adjoining
squadron could leave the formation. If you left the bomber stream too soon you
would be subject to charges. If you maneuvered too late you might get hit.

Any thinking person could see that this would not make
much difference in the overall hit rate but is would boost the morale of the
crews and at this point in the war that was critical. Twilling knew his men and
how much they could take. This tiny gesture could just give him another month
or so before it became apparent once again that they were not winning.

SAC was already at that point. The 15th would step in and
take over for a while. He and his brand new but old, shiny B-24s were polished
up and ready for action and they would give SAC a breather...a respite from the
inevitable. Basically the bombers of the 15th were just more targets for the
Reds to shoot at. They would be no more successful than the B-29s at reversing
the oil production rate. They could and would slow it down and that was good
enough in the eyes of the Joint Chiefs.

That was good enough to justify their
possible deaths. Sacrifices had to be made and they were.